Post Archive

TSM announce “Hjelte” series following Melee player Leffen

TeamSoloMid have announced a new documentary series focusing on the Super Smash Bros. Melee player, William “Leffen” Hjelte. The series, simply titled “Hjelte”, will be 3 parts long, and will focus on Leffen’s time at EVO 2017. According to producer Andrew White, it will be “covering before/after Evo as well as exploring the Melee scene as a whole”.

While the primary focus is on Leffen, we see that in the trailer there is also a focus on his friends/rivals in the community, as shown by interviews with people such as Team Liquid’s Hungrybox and Cloud9’s Mang0.

Overwatch: Summer Games 2017

In a developer update that released on August 1st, our boy Jeff, from the Overwatch team stated that the Summer Games would be coming back for a second year in a row. Although some of the skins will be the same, it’s not without some changes.  

This time around the Summer Games take place in Sydney, Australia. The event will have all of the skins from the previous year, but this time all of them will be available to purchase with in-game credits, a feature that wasn’t present in last year’s summer games. The old skins will be available for the same amount of currency that your standard items have (1000 for Legendary, 250 for epic, 75 for rare and 25 for commons), while the new ones will stay with the traditional event price gouging (3000 for legendary, 750 for epic, 225 for rare and 75 for common).

There will also be a new map for Lucioball, a soccer game mode where the only playable character is Lucio. The new map will be set in Sydney, Australia while the Rio map will also be available to play. This game mode will also feature a ranked mode where players can get competitive points for participating. There are also some balance changes for Lucioball. Lucio’s ultimate ability will now raise his speed and decrease his cooldowns for a period of time. You will also no longer be able to boop enemies, only the soccer ball.

Summer Games 2017 will start on August 8th and will run all the way to August 29th.

Magic The Gathering Color Theory: Blue

One of my favorite games ever is good ‘ol Magic: The Gathering. I’ve grown a pretty large attachment to it over the years, to where I’ve reached a point where I’m watching deckbox reviews on youtube for fun. Though, when it comes to Magic, I feel like something that goes widely underappreciated about it, at least in my community, is the lore of the game. Especially when it comes to the meaning behind the big 5 colors of the game. A lot of players brush over the colors, thinking they’re just an arbitrary means of organizing different play styles, when they’re actually much more than that. The colors of MTG each represent different sets of beliefs and ideals, and each card in that color is created while keeping those beliefs and ideals on mind. This time, I’ll be talking about the most iconic color in Magic, blue. The color of MTG’s own posterboy, Jace Beleren.

In MTG there’s this thing called the color pie. It’s an image showing the colors in alignment/opposition with each other, and what each one represents in terms of ideology.

Magic The Gathering color pie

The Color Pie (via MTG Wiki)

Blue wants knowledge. Blue believes that the pursuit of knowledge is the most important thing in life. Blue believes that the world is ever-changing, and because of that it always wants more information. How will it know what to do in a situation if they don’t know every single possible outcome? Unlike other colors which hold things like morality, emotion, the self, etc. above all else, blue doesn’t care about that. All blue cares about is learning. What’s the most optimal move? What knowledge will it gain from this? So long as blue comes out in the end knowing more, it’s a good trade-off. Blue wants to know anything and everything about the world. This search for knowledge is shown in a lot of the staple cards in blue.

Drawing cards represents this search for knowledge. Each individual draw allows the player to gain more knowledge about the current game, allowing them to better assess the situation. While card draw isn’t an ability exclusive to blue (that would be way too powerful), blue certainly has the best (and probably just more) versions of the ability.

Cards: Ancestral Recall, Brainstorm, Jace Beleren

Blue is not just about the pursuit of knowledge, though. Keep in mind, blue doesn’t just look for knowledge; it retains all of it. By searching for so long and learning so much, it knows how to come out winning in many, many situations, to the point where blue has effectively solved Magic. Blue is incredibly smart; borderline omniscient in some cases. Knowing how to beat everything is exactly where another staple abilities of blue come in: scrying and counter spells.

Scrying is a mechanic that allows you to look at the top card(s) of your deck depending on how much the effect lets you, and decide whether or not you want to keep the cards on the top of your deck, or put them on the bottom. Looking at what cards you’re going to draw, and literally changing that if you please, is pretty much as omniscient as you can get in MTG, considering you’re more or less seeing the future. It’s also paired with other beneficial abilities a lot, like a creature with evasion or card draw.

Cards: Serum Visions, Augury Owl, Preordain

While scry looks into the future, counter spells are the definitive form of blue’s overwhelming knowledge. Blue is able to stop pretty much anything in its tracks because it knows exactly how it works and how to beat it, hence why you have cards that literally just prevent other cards from working. Scry still has to assess some kind of situation, hence why a lot of the time it comes out at sorcery speed (can only be played on your turn). It’s only used at a time where you have the time to assess what to do. Counter spells happen at instant speed (can be played whenever), meaning that blue already has the necessary knowledge to know how to deal with the situation.

Cards: Negate, Force of Will, Counterspell

There is one card that I feel embodies everything blue is about, and it’s a little card called Cryptic Command. For 4 mana, it lets you do pretty much anything you’d ever want to do while playing blue. Stop an opponent from hurting you, counter literally anything, draw a card… It’s great. And you get to pick two of the effects.

Card: Cryptic Command

And there you have it, blue’s philosophy in a nutshell. It wants to know literally everything. Because of this, it’s generally agreed upon that in terms of sheer consistency and power, blue is the best color in the game. It’s hard to beat something that knows everything about you.

Splatoon 2: The Sequel that Could’ve Been

When I played the demo of Splatoon 2 back at PAX East, I liked it, but there wasn’t much of anything that made it feel like a sequel rather than a port of the first Splatoon from 2015 to Switch. In fact, my exact words were, “The demo of Splatoon 2 paints the game as an only slightly upgraded version of Splatoon: Still very fun, but not enough differences from the original Splatoon to make it feel like a new or different game in any way. In its current state, it feels more like a slight patch to the original Splatoon.” After having played the finished game for a while, I still feel the exact same way: It’s fun, but really doesn’t have enough new material to feel like a totally separate game from the original Splatoon. Rather, it simply feels like a port of the original Splatoon, but with a few new weapons and Salmon Run (which of course, is only available during certain times of the day). Even if a game has succeeded in being a good game, it still fails as a sequel if it’s hard to tell the difference between it and its original. Such is the case of Splatoon 2.

I find the fact that this is happening to Splatoon on the Switch, of all things, ironic when Mario Kart seemed to have the complete opposite happen to it at practically the exact same time: Mario Kart is a firmly established recurring series for Nintendo. Its latest entry, Mario Kart 8, is one of the most well-received Mario Kart titles out there and came out in 2014. The time is right for a new Mario Kart game on Nintendo’s newest console, yet instead, they did exactly what they should’ve done with Splatoon: They just ported it. Tell me if this sounds familiar: They added a little bit of new content to it, and then threw it on the Switch.

via arstechnica.com

The point I’m trying to get across here is that I’m so perplexed why Nintendo didn’t (pun not intended) switch the situations of these 2 games. Mario Kart is due for a sequel, and especially with Mario Kart 8 being one of the Wii U’s centerpieces, now would’ve been a great time to release Mario Kart 9–yet instead, they added a pinch of new content and just ported Mario Kart 8. Splatoon wouldn’t have been due for a sequel for another year or so, yet Nintendo gave the original Splatoon a pinch of new content and called it Splatoon 2–since it’s so similar to the original, they simply should’ve just called it what it is: A Splatoon port.

I’ve been told that perhaps the reason Nintendo chose to treat these games this way–or at least Splatoon–is to establish its status as a new recurring series for Nintendo. After all, there are ports for F-Zero available on the Virtual Console and we all know about how Nintendo feels about sequels for it. But by making a sequel that feels like a copy/pasting of the original, I really don’t think it’s helping Nintendo out as much as they’d like it to be in terms of establishing Splatoon as a recurring series. I’m sure they made a ton of money off of it, and it’s a fantastic game, but it’s so similar to the original Splatoon that it simply doesn’t read as a sequel. This makes me worry if Splatoon 3, 4, etc. will be the same way.

A series this reminds me of is Monster Hunter. I love Monster Hunter, make no mistake, but since titles for it come out so frequently these days and many of them are incredibly similar to each other, I haven’t actually bought a new one since 4. I plan on getting the next release with hopes that the minute differences found between Monster Hunter titles will finally have stacked enough to feel like a proper sequel, but after playing demos and reading reviews of all the new releases we’ve got since 4, none of them have seemed like a different enough experience from 4 to make me want to buy what is essentially 4 all over again.

Splatoon, I’m worried, will fall in this “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” category of game sequels in which little differences are made in each new entry, but usually nothing substantial. There are plenty of fine games and sequels that fall under this category–mostly yearly releases–but personally, in my humble (read this word closely) opinion–I prefer the traditional version of the sequel that keeps the spirit of the original alive but still feels like a different game.

via starmen.net

When I think of what a successful sequel looks like, I think of Nintendo’s own MOTHER trilogy. From the very beginning, each game has the same bizarre atmosphere and base concept of an ordinary child getting psychic powers and being thrown into extraordinary situations (featuring rampant symbolism). Moreover, their aesthetics and soundtracks, although different, are just similar enough to remind the player of other MOTHER games. Earthbound acts as a successful sequel to MOTHER by keeping its bizarreness intact whilst polishing the gameplay by adding a little something new (the rolling HP counter) and fixing some of the common complaints that the original MOTHER had (EX: Too much grinding, too easy to die). MOTHER 3 does the exact same thing to Earthbound–it adds the beat battles and fixes many of Earthbound’s common complaints (too hard to avoid enemies, not enough boss battles). Earthbound and MOTHER 3 are textbook definitions of what proper sequels should be–and effectively, a proper trilogy. These are the kinds of sequels I like best, and these kinds of sequels tend to be more prevalent in Nintendo titles.

Splatoon in and of itself is good enough of a base game for me to want to own it on the Switch. I (and I’m sure many other gamers) would’ve still bought it if it was just being called a Splatoon port on the Switch as well. But alas, I’m very aware that not everyone is that way, and by calling it Splatoon 2 Nintendo definitely made more money. From a financial standpoint, they made the right decision. In doing this, however, they’ve confirmed that if Splatoon 3 is the same way then they’ve cemented its status as a rarely changing game  series. Which is fine for some gamers, it is. It’s just the preference some people have–there’s nothing wrong with that. But in this particular gamer’s opinion, if Splatoon 3 follows suit, Splatoon will definitely become one of those series that I only buy every 2-3 sequels for with hopes that they’ll have changed just enough by then to feel like a proper sequel–to feel like I’m not just purchasing the same game all over again as I did with Splatoon 2. Not to mention to prevent the gameplay from becoming stale.

What surprises me the most about this since it’s Splatoon is the fact that this is a Nintendo game. From a business perspective, they did the right thing. They were safe rather than sorry. Artistically, however, Nintendo has been known to be a company that likes to take risks and be different. I mean, this is a game being played on a console with its on monitor if you need proof. Moreover, they’ve proven through Pokemon that it’s entirely possible to make recurring sequels with just enough changes to feel like a different game and still make it not just good, but excellent. That’s to say nothing of the aforementioned MOTHER trilogy, main series Mario games, Metroid, even Mario Kart to name a handful. It therefore surprises me that Nintendo didn’t try to be more risky with Splatoon. I’d expect this kind of static, unchanging sequel from a Sony or Microsoft game, but Nintendo? It’s incredibly rare, but it does happen from time to time (read: Most of the recent Mario Party releases). This just happens to be one of those times, unfortunately.

I do like Splatoon 2, I do, I just wish it felt like a sequel rather than a port. This is a very common thread I’ve seen in many critiques of Splatoon 2. I think Haedox, in particular, summed it up best in his review on Splatoon 2 when he said, “Nintendo is clearly capable of doing so much better when all they have to do is observe their competition…It’s still fun, but it gets back to the central issue of missed potential…Splatoon 2 is already beginning to get a bit stale because of its similarities to the first game.” By adding new classes of weapons, perhaps other gameplay modes (more than just the sometimes-open Salmon Run, for sure–though admittedly, if Salmon Run were open 24/7 it would help), more to do in Inkopolis Square, adding more customization options and outfits, and maybe even adding other small, fun things (for example: I always wondered why Callie and Marie, despite being such beloved pop stars, never had a show like this in Inkopolis) Splatoon 2 could’ve been one of the best releases in a year that’s widely considered to be one of the best gaming’s had in years with its constant stream of 5-star releases–yet it simply wasn’t. Splatoon 2 is a wonderful game, make no mistake, but it’s also only a wonderful game because the first Splatoon was a wonderful game. It may not feel like a sequel but if you were hoping to put one of the Wii U’s most beloved titles on your Switch, it’s available.

PUBG Update: Introducing the “Crate and Key System”

Player Unknown posted the Early Access Month 4 Update for PUBG and this is all the character stuff in a nutshell!

Two new face presets and hairstyles have been added for both genders.

The “crate and key system” will tested in the servers soon. There are two types of free-to-open crates that will be available: Survivor and Wanderer crates. The crate prices will be reset every Monday and the maximum number of crates you can obtain per week six. You can trade the items on the Steam Marketplace as well. The images below show what items you can receive from each crate.

For more information, check out the Early Access Month 4 Update. (provides all the images found here)

D&D 5E: The Cantor, Bard Subclass

The Lifecast’s Dungeon Master Greg Fernandes shares one of his homebrew Ideas. This time, The Cantor. A Bardic subclass with a focus on the Divine.

Cover Image by Daniel Kvasznicza A.K.A. Inetgrafx

http://www.inetgrafx.com/

How Marvel’s Marketing Works So Well

Marvel has been consistently dominating the box office since The Avenger’s hit theaters in 2012, but why has that been? How have the kept the franchise going so strong? There are two large factors for that: Building Narrative and Style.

Building a Powerful but Accessible Narrative

The Record setting Team-up that would change movie franchises forever. Image Source: http://collider.com/marvel-avengers-assembled-blu-ray-delayed/

We all know how The Dark Knight blew the world away with its take on a superhero movie, but Marvel was able to do something no one thought possible before. They created a Universe. Everyone knows how it was done. Establish individual heroes and then create a team-up. But how has the hype continued? How has the interest kept going?

While Thor The Dark World may not have been as amazing as people hoped, its still entertaining and will affect the future events. Image Source: http://www.joeydevilla.com/2013/08/03/too-close-for-comfort-the-iron-man-3-and-thor-the-dark-world-posters/

The reason is that Marvel focused on making each installment an important chapter, one that always builds. Each “Phase” has a number of movies for individual hero or hero teams that leads to another large-scale Avengers. But even the movies in-between show the after effects of each big event and the crucial steps to the next. This makes each film feel like its own event. But each film does well to nod at what happened before. Marvel makes it so you can enjoy Age of Ultron without seeing Winter Soldier, but the narrative will be far more rewarding if you do. And it feels less like a chore because of their consistent quality. Leading to the Second Point:

Marvel’s Style

A complaint I often hear is that Marvel movies are too similar. That’s fair, many have a similar structure, and it isn’t hard to find a hero who’s snarky. However, I believe that though they may be similar, it makes their world more authentic. While Doctor Strange and Ant Man may have ingredients as to what made Iron Man such a treat, they still have their own identity.

Ant Man is nearly a straight heist film, Doctor Strange is a surreal and and imaginative character journey, and Guardians is a Space Opera with a retro swing.

Marvel film’s style often reflects the light tone, but films like

Many studios are trying to make their own universe to…less than great results. Image Source: http://www.impawards.com/2017/mummy_ver3.html

Civil War and Winter Soldier show the harsh effects of debates without a clear right and wrong. They ask: security or freedom? Appeasement of the public or the saving of many?

Marvel knows how to walk the line with these questions, but doesn’t try to take itself too seriously. It knows the weight and doesn’t try to make it seem heavier. Now every other studio is trying to make a consistent universe, from Kong Skull Island to The Mummy. The Marvel movies are by no means perfect, but with Avengers 4 coming, I don’t see the Marvel train losing steam anytime soon.

Release Roundup 8/1 – 8/12

The next week and a half of video games is on the slower side, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to check out. Here’s the stuff coming out that I think will be worth checking out. Take a look!

 

Patapon Remastered

Patapon is a beloved series of rhythm games that released on the on the PSP starting in 2008. So, if you happened to miss out on the PSP era now is your chance to make up for it. In Patapon you control a tribe of small, black creatures that are mostly eyes, called Patapon. You charge the small Patapon into battle while they rhythmically and menacingly chant past any other tribes that get in their way. This remaster only has the first game in the series and you can get the game digitally starting today for $14.99 on Ps4

Tacoma

Tacoma is Fullbright’s highly anticipated second game, the first being Gone Home. Tacoma is a narrative based sci-fi adventure set in a space station in the year 2088. If it’s anything like their previous work, Tacoma will probably focus on the more personal and human side of being in space rather than the sci-fi aspect of it. The review embargo lifted today and the game will be out on Steam and Xbox One starting on August 2nd for $19.99.

LawBreakers

LawBreakers is the first game made by Cliff Bleszinski’s new studio Boss Key Productions. It’s a first person arena shooter made in the style of games like Unreal Tournament while mixing it with modern shooter abilities and mobility options. This game has seen a lot of iteration through many closed and open beta sessions and seeing the final product is something I’m excited for. You can get it starting August 8th for $29.99

Sony Buys Out Funimation

Funimation and Sony Pictures TV have signed an agreement that would see the majority of the anime distributor bought out by Sony. Funimation’s CEO, Gen Fukunaga, will remain CEO of the company. This could mean that anime produced by Aniplex and A-1, two studios that Sony owns, as well as anime that Funimation has rights to distribute, may see more releases in the United States.

Dark Souls – The Vinyl Trilogy Announced for Fall

Bandai Namco announced the limited edition run of the set this week. The Dark Souls LPs will be available sometime this fall, as a limited edition 2000-copy run. Not only does each game get its own set of LPs, but there will be 9 total vinyl in the box set. The announcement trailer shows that Dark Souls 2 will be spread out on four vinyl, while Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 are only on two each.